SHIPYARDS TAKING AIM AT BARRIO LOGAN PLAN

Drive for 50,000 signatures launched to qualify referendum for June ballot

San Diego’s shipyard owners and their suppliers will launch a 50,000-signature drive today to place the newly adopted Barrio Logan community plan on the June ballot.

They oppose the plan, five years in the making and approved Sept. 17 by the City Council, because businesses, needing special permits to expand, could be forced to relocate and make San Diego less competitive in Navy ship repairs.

“What it amounts to is the erosion of your industrial base,” said Matt Carr, president of California Marine Cleaning, a business on Main Street with 150 to 250 employees. “It’s a little bit here, a little bit there, and over time, the landscape changes and it doesn’t come back.”

The newly formed Protect Our Jobs coalition, organized by the Ship Repair Association, will begin its petition drive at R.E. Staite Engineering with industry representatives and dock workers on hand. Among the speakers will be Councilman Kevin Faulconer, one of the four council members, all Republicans, who voted against the 1,000-acre plan, which is surrounded by 4,300 residents, citing the potential impact on the industry.

Five Democrats, including Interim Mayor and Council President Todd Gloria and neighborhood representative David Alvarez, voted for the plan because they thought the industry could live with the changes and the community would be far better off under the new zoning rules adopted. Faulconer and Alvarez are running for mayor.

Derry Pence, president of the repair association, said the industry is still open to compromise over the plan and implementing ordinances, which face one more set of council approvals Oct. 15.

“We’re moving forward (with the referendum) under the impression that nobody wants to talk about this and we feel this is our only recourse to undo a grievous wrong,” Pence said.

Alvarez’s spokeswoman said the councilman stands ready to talk about a compromise but has not initiated any meetings with the industry and community. Faulconer’s office said council members are considering options, but nothing concrete has been advanced.

The referendum needs about 34,000 petition signatures from registered city voters within 30 days. Once the city clerk verifies the petitions, the plan would be placed before the council to either rescind or place on the next available city ballot, the June 3 primary. A separate drive is planned against the ordinances and they would also be up for voter reconsideration at the same time.

If city voters repeal the plan, it could not be reconsidered for at least a year and might require a whole new round of planning and environmental impact reports before it could return in a new form.

Rachel Ortiz, executive director of the Barrio Station social services agency in the neighborhood, said she always worried that the plan would be challenged by the industry because of the zoning and planning changes under consideration — most particularly, the end to allowing any use on any block in the neighborhood. However, she said the current plan, adopted in 1978, has resulted in much improvement and the community could live with it a few more years.